Last weekend my DH and I had hoped to get over to Miller's Ark to see the lambing but the weather was absolutely horrendous so we stayed in with a nice log fire instead :) This weekend though the weather was beautiful so we thought a couple of hours looking at the lambs before a 5 mile walk was a good plan, and boy was it ever!
First up, Miller's Ark. These guys are based a couple of miles away from me and have a brilliant setup for kids and adults alike. The volunteers are all amazingly helpful and evidently really care about the animals. The animals themselves are utter characters! It is very evident that they've all been raised being used to being handled and as such they are very friendly especially if you have a cup of feed in your hands.
The area you're allowed into as visitors is split up into a couple of well marked areas. The first is a series of pens with sheep, lambs and goats in them for you to feed. In these ones are the Angora goats (very nimble at climbing up the fencing to snaffle feed from your cup when you're not watching!) and some very placid Oxford Downs with their lambs... the latter not being half as smart as the goats!
How could you not want to feed this cheeky chappy?!?
You can just make out the second pen in the top picture which has some Devon(?) Longwools in it. Their fleeces really are amazingly heavy and I was lucky enough to get chatting to one of the volunteers about them. Turns out the fast way to get the whistlestop tour is to ask about the breed then say you're a new spinner :) I'm sure I didn't remember half of what I got told.
The far pens had the real characters in them though, a bunch of Herdwick Shetland crosses! Yes you did hear me right on the mix. The reason being they only had ewes of one breed but no ram (sorry I can't remember which way round it was). As a farm that specialises in hands on kids stuff they try to breed so they have new lambs for as much of the year as possible, and breeding the Oxford Downs with anything else just wouldn't have worked due to the size difference of the animals, so a Herdwick Shetland cross it was :) From what I remember it also means they get a good sized lamb early on which again helps with them being handled a lot by non-experts.
These guys were utter hooligans, running from one end of the pen to the other whenever they got so much as a sniff of feed. You can see how they've managed to wear down the wool on their necks by shoving their heads through anything that they can fit through! When you look at them they have very Herdy'ish faces but the wool is surprisingly soft, very much more like what you would expect from a Shetland. Funny how the genetics works out isn't it.
Prize for most chilled out sheep though has to go to this little guy...
whilst the "how far down is that?!?!" prize goes to this one...
The award for utter Awwwhhh though has to be split between this bunch of baby rabbits...
and little guy who was less than a day old...
My DH took great delight in stroking, cuddling and petting everything small and furry within sight :) We'll definitely be back for the sheering though... now I just have to hope that they'll be willing to sell me a fleece or three rather then sending them all off to the Wool Board... Angoras and Herdy crosses I have my eyes on you :)
A five mile walk, several pints of cider just before the end whilst watching the sun go down, then takeaway in front of a crackling fire at home and the day was complete. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I think you'll agree.
First up, Miller's Ark. These guys are based a couple of miles away from me and have a brilliant setup for kids and adults alike. The volunteers are all amazingly helpful and evidently really care about the animals. The animals themselves are utter characters! It is very evident that they've all been raised being used to being handled and as such they are very friendly especially if you have a cup of feed in your hands.
The area you're allowed into as visitors is split up into a couple of well marked areas. The first is a series of pens with sheep, lambs and goats in them for you to feed. In these ones are the Angora goats (very nimble at climbing up the fencing to snaffle feed from your cup when you're not watching!) and some very placid Oxford Downs with their lambs... the latter not being half as smart as the goats!
How could you not want to feed this cheeky chappy?!?
You can just make out the second pen in the top picture which has some Devon(?) Longwools in it. Their fleeces really are amazingly heavy and I was lucky enough to get chatting to one of the volunteers about them. Turns out the fast way to get the whistlestop tour is to ask about the breed then say you're a new spinner :) I'm sure I didn't remember half of what I got told.
The far pens had the real characters in them though, a bunch of Herdwick Shetland crosses! Yes you did hear me right on the mix. The reason being they only had ewes of one breed but no ram (sorry I can't remember which way round it was). As a farm that specialises in hands on kids stuff they try to breed so they have new lambs for as much of the year as possible, and breeding the Oxford Downs with anything else just wouldn't have worked due to the size difference of the animals, so a Herdwick Shetland cross it was :) From what I remember it also means they get a good sized lamb early on which again helps with them being handled a lot by non-experts.
These guys were utter hooligans, running from one end of the pen to the other whenever they got so much as a sniff of feed. You can see how they've managed to wear down the wool on their necks by shoving their heads through anything that they can fit through! When you look at them they have very Herdy'ish faces but the wool is surprisingly soft, very much more like what you would expect from a Shetland. Funny how the genetics works out isn't it.
Prize for most chilled out sheep though has to go to this little guy...
whilst the "how far down is that?!?!" prize goes to this one...
The award for utter Awwwhhh though has to be split between this bunch of baby rabbits...
and little guy who was less than a day old...
My DH took great delight in stroking, cuddling and petting everything small and furry within sight :) We'll definitely be back for the sheering though... now I just have to hope that they'll be willing to sell me a fleece or three rather then sending them all off to the Wool Board... Angoras and Herdy crosses I have my eyes on you :)
A five mile walk, several pints of cider just before the end whilst watching the sun go down, then takeaway in front of a crackling fire at home and the day was complete. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I think you'll agree.
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